I am destruction
by JKenzo
Summary: Kind of BtVS Season 6 & 7 rewrite. Faith never was a Slayer, and after Kendra died, someone else was called. She's emotionally damaged... and falls in love with Buffy...
1. Chapter 1

**CATEGORY:** Drama, Kind of season 6 & 7 rewrite.

**TIMELINE:** BtVS Season 6 & 7

**English is not my first language, so I'm sorry about the language.**

**INFO: **Faith never was a Slayer, and after Kendra died, someone else was called. And she's emotionally damaged... She came to Sunnydale right after season 5 end.

**Pairing**: Will eventually be **Buffy / Other female.** (Actually that other female is Kennedy, but this Kennedy has almost nothing in common with the BtVS canon Kennedy. I used her body & name only because she was the oldest(?) of the potentials, and she was only potential Slayer I know who was a lesbian.)

**DISCLAIMER: **_Series trademarks, all publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The author is not in any way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise, and makes no money from this work. No copyright infringement is intended._

* * *

**Prologue**

_"Fuck off." She said._

_The vampire glared her. "I can assure you of this much: I recommend..."_

_"Fuck. Off." She repeated._

_He looked her with disgust, then he slapped her, and his long fingernails cut her cheek. When she tasted her own blood she smiled. Blood and pain made it bearable, as long as she was in pain and bleeding she knew she hadn't surrendered._

_The vampire grimaced and took a whip. When whipping started she closed her eyes and started to build new rooms to her memory castle. Then, without warning, a wave of unfamiliar pain swept over her body, and the bright blue-white light filled her eyes, forcing her to shut them. Every muscle in her body tensed and she pulled the heavy chains so hard that she broke free, and fell face first on the ground. She breathed deeply, trying not to scream. Then her body started to tremble uncontrollably and her head banged on the stone floor._

_As fast as her seizure came it was over. She felt good. And strong._

_For a moment vampires stared her, but when she tried to get up, they began to rain blows down upon her with such lightning rapidity that she didn't feel them as individual blows; she was in constant pain._

_It continued what seemed like an eternity until finally the blissful darkness fell over her broken body._

* * *

_Darkness. Always in darkness._

_At first she hadn't seen anything, but now her eyes captured even slightest hint of light, and she could see faint shapes of the wall, and the hatch on the ceiling. Same enhancement had happened to all her senses. Whatever they did to her it hurt only at first few times, then she got used to it. Her body and mind seemed to be more adaptive than they thought._

_Most of her memories were too painful to recall now, so most of the time she occupied her mind by imagining a perfect girlfriend. Her beautiful eyes, hair, lips, breasts, hips, legs, fingers, toes... she knew every inch of her, she was filled by her._

_She'd accepted that this small hole was her world that she'd die in there. But as her body was suffering from starvation and dehydration her mind still was trying to find a way to escape._

_Imagination. That they couldn't take away from her._

_They hadn't broken her. Yet._

_She laid her naked body on the smelly and sticky floor and shivered from the coldness. She closed her eyes and laid on the field snuggling with her girlfriend, watching the stars. Sky was clear, and stars were bright, and her girlfriend taught constellations to her. She cuddled against her warm body and fell asleep feeling her hand gently stroking her back._

* * *

**I am destruction**

**I**

She had settled into her chair and unfolded the newspaper in front of her. She glanced at the headlines of the first page. "Drugged water caused resent hallucinations?" She didn't have to read the article, it had happened right after she'd come to Sunnydale and she had fought and killed some of those hallucinations. Demons and dragons. She wondered what had happened to the dragon after that day there hadn't been any sightings of it.

She flipped through the pages, reading only the headlines, she didn't have to read the articles. She already had learned that people of Sunnydale had developed a blind spot. Uncommonly big blind spot that covered everything supernatural. On a back page was a brief article entitled, "Biker gang coming to Sunnydale?" She smiled to herself as she examined blurry picture, it was obvious that the disfigured biker was a demon. At last something was happening, the summer had been boring, so boring that the most fun she'd had was stalking late Slayer's friends as they tried to do her duty. She had helped them, killing as many vampires as possible to keep them safe.

Biker demons, that sounds interesting, she thought.

She lightly flicked the paper out of her hands and stared out from the window. She saw how the horizon was blood red, soon darkness would fall. She stood up, went to her weapons chest and took a sword, knives, stakes and pistols. She laid them in front of her. She carefully cleaned the blade. Then she oiled it, put it back to it's saya and repeated her actions with her pistols, knives and stakes.

Then she dressed and opened the door. Sun had just gone below the horizon, and the street was still filled with people. She ran dodging people, she wanted to get away from them. She climbed over piles of the fallen wall of the cemetery. The cemetery was not much different than it had been before, she wondered if any other place had so many cemeteries which had so many headstones and crypts to crawl over. Even when the demon activity in town was slow, new graves appeared in daily basis.

Suddenly she smelled a familiar scent. "You are good." She said.

"Hey, darlin'," Drawled a stout, British voice behind her. "Yeah, I'm good, though you are very good too. It took weeks to catch you," The vampire said. "And the name's Spike."

She nodded, bitterly, he had surprised her because she was off from her game. More than likely he had patiently waited for her to appear. She cursed inwardly. "William The Bloody."

Spike raised his brow. "You've heard about me?"

She nodded. "Leave."

"Not until I find out who you are and why do you kill demons." Spike said and took a step toward her.

She turned to leave. "Hey." Spike said, and she felt his finger poke base of her spine.

Slowly she turned to regard him again. Her nostrils had begun to flare almost like an animal's, and she seemed to stand a little taller. There was a dangerous light in her eyes and menace in her stance; adrenaline rushed through her and she leaped on him. As they fell on the ground, he used their momentum to throw her over him. Then he cried from pain. She had stabbed his chest with a wooden stake.

She smiled as she got up. "Next... impales your heart," Uncertainty flitted across his eyes as he pulled the stake out from his chest. They stared each other for nearly a full minute, and he withstood the intensity of her nearness and her rage. "Witch's puppy." She stated.

"Why you little—"

"Spike!" Someone yelled.

As he turned to the red witch, she quickly ran into the crypt near by. "Red, I'm busy with my new... She's good... So, what do you want, Red?" He asked.

She watched from the crypt as the witch explained that they needed him to babysat for the late Slayer's little sister few nights because they would be busy. She wondered why the witch was so excited. She had stalked them so long that she knew that excitement was almost natural state of the red witch, but now she was more exited than she'd ever seen her. Exited and nervous.

"I'm not a bloody babysitter!" The vampire stated.

"But you like Dawn," The red witch pouted. "And you're only one of us who's strong enough to protect her."

The vampire groaned loudly. "I'm not a protector, I'm bad. Bad to the bone."

"And that's why we want you to guard her. Big bad guarding her... she'll be safe." The red witch said, and she could hear the amusement from her voice.

The vampire sighed. "Alright Red, I'll do it." He said.

* * *

The bar was filthy and dark, but she liked it: it was one place in town where none of the male customers tried to pick her up. They tried to stay as far from her as possible. Customers were mostly vampires and demons, and most of them were relatively peaceful ones, and they knew that most of the times she came there just in the same purpose as themselves; to drink.

From time to time, there'd be a random bar fight, but Willy liked it when she was around. She kept them on their toes. Most of them were there because they had nowhere else to go, or they were meeting someone, planning something horrible. She was surprised that none of them had realized that she could hear them even when they talked quietly. It hadn't been one or two occasions when she'd heard about some demon or vampire activity just by sitting and drinking.

As she walked toward corner table two vampires on it left to find a better place, and she had barely sat down when Willy brought whiskey bottle and glass to her. She leaned back, closed her eyes and listened them, at times taking sips from her glass.

An hour later she'd drank almost half of the bottle, and none of the customers had said anything interesting. She was just about to leave when a new customer arrived. She was a pale and scared human, she went in to the unisex/unispecies bathroom. Her distress interested her. She sat back at her table to wait what would happen.

Then door opened again, and biker demon walked in. He tickled all of her senses and suddenly adrenaline filled her body, flushing effects of alcohol away. She was entirely sober and ready to fight. She glanced at the demon who went to the bartender.

"Blood, human. Mix it to vodka." He said, and she raised her brow, a demon who drank blood? Willy gave a quick glance to her, and only after she gave a nod to Willy, he leaned under the counter. She took a good look at the demon; he was about six feet, big muscles, dark eyes, disfigured face, dressed like a Hell's Angel. She instinctively knew that he was strong.

"Heated or cold?"

"Doesn't matter. Where's the woman?"

Again Willy glanced at her, and she shook her head. Biker demon noticed this and came to her.

"So... you call the shots in here?" He asked.

She nodded.

He sat opposite of her and raised his brow. "You're a human."

She shrugged.

"Do you know who I am?" He asked.

"No."

"I'm a Hellion." He said, obviously expecting her to back off because of the name he'd given.

She didn't. "I'm not impressed." She said.

He tried to grab her throat, but she grabbed his wrist and placed a right jab on to his face. "No one gets to touch me." She said.

Demon rubbed his broken nose, his mental processes were gone beyond the point of disbelief and shock; they simply were not functioning. A small human woman had broken his nose. After a long while, he spoke. "We own this town!"

She shook her head. "No..." She said and stood up. He lunged at her in a blurred motion, but she dodged his attack and he found himself from the floor. "... you don't." She continued.

Now he was cautious, he stood up, and as he snarled a row of an ivory daggers flashed in the light. "So... I have to kill you tonight..."

He leaped across the gap between them and punched hard on to her face. She flew backwards and hit the wall and when he heard sickening scrunch he smirked. He was sure that her skull was crushed, and she was either dead or dying. His eyes widened when she got up, shook her head and smirked. He again lunged on to her. She elbowed him on the jaw and his blood splattered onto her face, and she smirked and licked his blood. When he tried to punch her stomach, instead of her body, his fist hit the wall behind her. He turned around, she was at the other end of the bar.

"How can you move that fast? No human... is that fast." He said as he swiped blood off from his lips.

She shrugged.

"It doesn't matter. I have to kill you now, or Razor will kill me." The demon said.

She lunged to him, and as he dodged her attack she raised her leg and kicked his groin with her knee and pushed him against the wall. She swung her fist into his face with devastating force, before grabbing a sword from its sheath and soon his head was rolling on the floor. She grabbed his head, sniffed it and smiled.

Then she went to the toilet and opened its door, the woman was sobbing at toilet seat. "He's dead." She stated and left before she had a change to say anything else.

When she got out from the bar her ears suddenly caught a whine; she recognized the voice; it was the Slayer's friend. She spring toward the sound. The pack of vampires had surrounded him. She stopped, and watched how he dusted one of them. He must've known he'd die, there was far too many vampires for him to survive. But he fought like a cornered beast. She smiled, she was proud of him.

A large vampire was attacking him, he snarled at the vampire, the vampire growled at him when it ambitiously tried to attack him. The boy dodged his attack, but another vampire hit him and he fell down. She increased her pace and threw one of her stakes. As it sunk in to heart of vampire, she kicked the other vampire away from the boy.

She stood alongside him, as though it was her appointed position. "Here." She said and gave her sword to the boy. "Don't kill me."

"Thanks," The boy said. "You saved my life... for now."

She turned to vampires and growled to them showing her teeth, they glanced each other before attacking. Pulling her leg back she sent a powerful kick to the groin of the nearest vampire, ducked down, sliced one of their stomach with a knife. She was surprised when the boy cut the head off from the stunned vampire. She nodded to him, and then she was in the middle of them, kicking, punching and slicing them like a machine.

They'd been so occupied trying to kill her that they had forgotten the boy until he had already beheaded two of them. She backed up on the boy's side. "Again?" She asked.

He grinned. "Yeah, we have a good thing going on in here; you beat, I kill."

She smiled. It had been her against the world of demons, fighting to survive, and the fact that winning also meant that she probably saved some lives didn't mean anything to her. But this time she had someone beside her. The boy was not a strong or good fighter. She knew that vampires could smell same than she did; the boy was scared. But he wouldn't back off, he stood there and glared back at the vampires.

She lunged on them with such quick fierceness that they tumbled over backward in a ridiculous effort to escape her kicks and punches. Her temper was now shorter than ever. The battle was fierce and quick, and soon remaining vampires fled. She was about to run after them, but then she smelled blood. When she turned to the boy, she saw only white of his eyes just before he fell on the ground.

His jeans were clotted with viscous patches of blood. She inspected him, he had been wounded in the leg. She tore his shirt and quickly made a tourniquet. Then she lifted him on her lap and carried him to the street corner and called an ambulance. Making sure that he'd be okay she waited until the ambulance came.

* * *

The hall of the hospital was filled with people waiting their turn, she walked past them to the counter. "Harris?" She asked.

Nurse glanced at her. "First name?"

"Xander."

The nurse nodded. "We have Alexander Harris as a patient."

"That'll be him." She said.

"He's at the third floor, room 311. Are you a relative?"

"Kinda." She answered.

"Well... the thing is, he don't have a health insurance and..."

"I'll pay." She cut the nurse off and gave a credit card to her.

"Than you." The nurse said and gave the credit card back to her.

She nodded and walked to the elevator. For two days she had thought about this. She was sure that He wouldn't leave the battleground, he'd be hunting vampires until he dies. And the Watcher and the Witches seemed not to care about his training. And without training he'd be dead too soon.

"Hi," Xander greeted her when she entered in to his room. "It's my knight...tress in a shining armor... well, in black denim, but my savior, I bow and thank thee."

"Don't mention it." She said.

"I do mention it, I'm grateful that you saved my puny ass."

"I paid your bill."

He frowned. "Why? You already saved my ass."

She shrugged and stared him, sunken in her thoughts.

"Well... I'll pay you back," He said. "I'm Xander."

She nodded. "I know."

He furrowed. "How?"

"I just do," She said and sighed. "You will not stop? Patrolling. Killing vampires."

He growled. "Don't you start that, I don't need a new girl protector, I've got enough those," He furrowed. "Who are you anyway?"

"Nobody," She said and tilted her head. "Your friend is coming." She gave him a paper. "Come here. Alone." She continued and opened the window.

"Hey! This is the third floor, you can't..." He said. "..jump. Damn," She glanced at the open window and sighed. "Gotta be a demon.. well... that figures."

"What figures?" She heard the red witch say as she was hanging from the window sash.

"Nothing. Hi Wil."

"Damn you mister, two days! Two days ago you got hurt and no call. I had to find out from your dad. He was angry, they had asked him to pay your bill and then I came here and your bill was paid... Why didn't you tell anyone that you're hurt?"

He groaned. "Don't tell me that you told Buffy? Buffy's stressed enough already."

"Of course I did... Something came with her. Something sinister."

"Right... never thought it would be that easy. Get me out from here."

She groaned. They had brought the slayer back.


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: **_Series trademarks, all publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The author is not in any way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise, and makes no money from this work. No copyright infringement is intended._

* * *

**II**

Xander stood in front of the store, wondering why he hadn't told anyone about the girl. He knew he should have, with his track record she was a demon. But for some reason he trusted her, and that made him uneasy.

For a long time he just stood there, staring the door, it was a familiar place, and there still was something desperately wrong with the place. The glass door of the store was covered with a cardboard, and windows were painted black. And in Sunnydale that always was a bad sign. He sighed and knocked the door before his courage failed, and after a while the door opened. The girl nodded to him and motioned him to come in. As he went in the hair back of his neck stood up, and he shivered.

"What is it?" The girl asked.

"I have bad memories about this place," He said and sighed when the brunette raised her brow. "Chaos mage owned this place. Bad things happened."

She nodded. "Follow me."

When the girl easily lifted a massive flagstone with one hand, his eyes widened. "What are you?" He asked.

"The..." The girl groaned. "A half-breed." She explained and climbed down the ladder. Even though, he was slightly afraid, he followed her down. When he got down he looked around him. The floor seemed to tilt down at a dizzy angle while the ceiling seemed to dip crazily toward it.

"What is this place?" He asked.

"My lair," She said and disappeared in to the darkness. "Ya coming?" He heard from the distance.

"Um... it's dark in here, I can't see..."

"Oh, right, human eyes, sorry." She said and suddenly the place lighted up. He stood at the corner of a huge basement. There was a bed and the walls were covered with different types of weapons.

"What... do you want from me?" Stunned Xander asked. "and um... for the record; I'm not a virgin and I have a girlfriend."

"'S fine. A gay." She stated.

"No! Why does everyone think that I'm... of, you're a gay, huh?" She nodded, and he smiled relievedly. "So what do you want from me?"

"Train you."

When Xander realized what she had said he was stunned. "Why me?" He asked.

"Because I despise the humans, demons, vampires, and myself. But not you." She explained, her voice was matter-of-fact, completely emotionless. "I won't hurt you. Or your friends," The girl said and smiled sadly. "I rather let you kill me than hurt you."

He smiled. "What's your name?"

She froze. "I'm... nobody."

"You're someone... who saved my life. I need a name to call you," Xander grinned. "And The Nobody is already taken."

The girl frowned. "Vampire... dust... Ash... call me Ash."

"Your name's not Ash, is it?" The girl shook her head, he waited for a moment her to speak, and when she didn't he sighed. "Ash it is then."

She nodded. "Get on the tatami, we'll start from the basics..."

* * *

He was breathing hard, barely getting air to his lungs, sweat running down his face and his back and his leg ached. Every muscle in his body ached. At times like this Xander hated Ash, her training schedule and her drill sergeant attitude. She pushed him on his limits and then just kept pushing until his spirit was pretty well broken and his legs just kept moving, but he had to admit that it appeared that his body could do more than he'd ever imagined.

And what annoyed him most was how Ash hadn't even gotten sweaty, he had learned that Ash had super strength and speed, she was at least as strong as Buffy, but it still annoyed him. And he knew that it wouldn't end when running would be over. No, there would be a short break, and then the Krav Maga lessons would start.

And every lesson was harder than last. And every evening Ash was waiting him at the end of his work day and then the torture started with stretching, then came push ups, pull-ups, sit ups, and some exercise moves he had no idea what they were called. And then the running... Xander sighed, Ash loved running, and though he tried to hate it he had slowly developed a taste for it; running made him feel free.

And he liked about the fact that now there was someone who didn't think that he was useless, who actually thought that he was good enough to be trained to fight against the evil. His days were filled, there wasn't enough time to worry about how strangely Willow and Buffy acted. He woke up at the first rays of sun, went to work, and after the work he suffered through two to four hours physical, and fighting training. At nights he barely had the energy to keep up with Anya.

Anya. He smiled, Anya had noticed how his body was changing. She had even called him as a hunk. And when he had told her that he was trying to get in the better shape, she had been exited how strong and flexible he was becoming. He sighed, of course Anya's excitement had meant strangest sexual positions. Some of them were – and he was sure about that – unknown to humans. At least to humans who hadn't lived over thousand years.

But the main thing was: he now knew that he could defend himself in the fight. Never again would he be an easy target to any one. He sat on the moist grass, he didn't care that his ass was getting wet, he just wanted to rest for a moment. Ash started to do her own version of Tai Chi. She seemed to throw punches which took ages to finalize. Then Ash turned her back to Xander, and he stared her tight bike shorts covered butt, and he blushed, but he couldn't get his eyes off from her ass. After all, he was a healthy man.

He groaned. "You're doing that in purpose, aren't you?" He asked. Ash turned to him and raised her brow. He sighed, of course she hadn't done it purposely. Like all women – except Anya, which probably was the reason he loved her – in his life she saw him only as a friend. "Nothing. Forget it." He said.

"I'm proud of you." Ash suddenly said.

"Huh?"

"You continue even though your leg must still hurt a lot, most people would've given up already. You have not."

Xander was stunned, never before had she praised him, in fact, she spoke bare minimum, even less than Oz. "Um... I wanna be good shape when vampires again attack me. Maybe I can't win, but I won't make it easy for them."

Ash nodded. "You have a meeting to go." She said and ran away.

Xander stared after her, sighed and got up. He did have a meeting to go, and her knowing about it made him uneasy; maybe she had used him to get close of the Slayer. He groaned, or maybe I'm just paranoid.

* * *

Week later, when Ash took Xander on patrol with her, he was introduced to whole new world he hadn't seen before. Sure, he had been on patrols before, but those had been more like friends walking through nightly cemeteries.

But now he was deep inside of a forest. Well, they were in the Sunnydale park, but never before had he realized how large and filled with life it was. He watched how Ash worked, she never turned her head, never said a word, she even moved so inhumanly silently through the underbrush that he was sure that she walked slightly above the ground.

They went deeper on the bushes of the park, deeper than he'd ever been, and when they crossed a wide tract of sand she stopped. She turned her head and wrinkled her nose. Xander took a deep breath, trying to smell what she smelled. He couldn't smell anything unusual. As he glanced Ash, she smirked and pointed her ears.

He closed his eyes and stopped breathing and listened. For momentarily he couldn't hear anything else than his own heart beat, wind and swishing of the leaves. Then he heard muffled voices. He opened his eyes and sniffed. He furrowed, Ash had said he'd smell if they were vampires, but he smelled only pine, freshly cut grass, sour milk, some kind of sweet smell, the damp earth, and.. iron. His eyes widened. _Sour milk and iron?_ He thought,_ blood smells steel! Hell! I CAN smell them!_ He smiled to her, nodded and patted his nose.

Suddenly she ran few steps, leaped into the air and rammed both her feet into a neat front kick that hit vampire's face and both vampires fell down. Xander watched with awe as she simultaneously staked both of them, it was nothing like the vampire kills he'd seen before, everything was over in few seconds.

Suddenly she leaped on him, for a fraction of a second he saw the soles of her shoes, he dodged and tried to elbow her as she went by him. "Whatta fuck was that!" He yelled. "That would've hurt!"

"You dodged."

His eyes widened, it was true; unlike those vampires, he actually had dodged her attack. He grinned. "Yeah, I did, didn't I?"

As they walked back to the town, he sneered when they passed a massive old building. The windows were painted black, the terrace was covered with plants and dust. She raised her brow.

"Dead boy's mansion," He explained. "Angel's place. Never liked him, and then he went and lost his soul and killed people. After that I liked him even less, ya know? But s'pose he's a good guy now that he again has his soul..."

* * *

Xander groaned; Giles announcing something important was sort of unnerving idea, usually it meant that the world was about to end.

"Why don't you jump to the chase, Giles? Just tell them that you're–" Buffy said, but stopped when Spike came in.

"Fancy meeting you here." Spike said.

"Spike?" Giles asked.

"Holy moly." Anya said.

"You need to give me asylum." Spike said.

"I'll say." He said and tuned out from their discussion. He was thinking about Ash, the girl was a mystery to him. In one moment, she was an efficient killing machine that terrified him, and in the next moment she was... almost shy and gentle.

Then he heard Giles telling that he's leaving to England. " Now? Not now, not right after... everything." He said.

Then there was Willow's apology, and as he listened Buffy's heart breaking confession the bell over the door of the Magic box chimed and a new customer came in. He glanced at the door, and his eyes widened. It was Ash. She had made clear that he should keep her existence in secret from others. And now she was here, in the Slayer's lair as she once had called it. She and Spike silently stared each other.

"Um... I'll go and tell her that we're closed." He said.

"Sell something to her." Anya said.

He grinned. "Check. Sell things to pretty lady before shooing her away."

He got nervous as he walked toward the Ash. Though her face rarely showed any emotion, he had learned to read her, and now he saw something he'd never seen before; she was nervous. And the thing that made a girl like her nervous had to be exceptionally dangerous. "Can I help you?" He asked.

"Yeah," She said and picked a locket, never taking her eyes off from Spike. "I'll take this." She continued and as she slid the locket to his hand she gave a paper to him.

He glanced at the paper, nodded and put it in to his pocket. Then he turned to Anya. "Ahn, she wants to buy this locket. And I have no clue how to use the cash regist—"

* * *

She felt dizzy when she woke up beside a young man. She looked around, she laid on a floor of some kind of shop, and there was about half of dozen people slowly getting up. She glanced out from the window. It was a night. She got up and frowned, she had no idea who the other people were. Her eyes widened when she realized that she had no idea who she was. And why idea of not remembering who she was made her happy.

"Hey?" The young man said to her.

She smiled to him. "Hey." Then she frowned, she was surrounded by strange screeching sounds. Fascinated by all the information her senses told her, she tried to listen sounds coming from outside. She heard a group of men gathering around them. The man who had been beside her wondered if they were in a strange psychology test. "I don't think so," She said. "This all feels familiar."

"Do you remember anything?" A middle age man asked. "Does anyone remember anything?"

She frowned and shook her head. When others pondered what had happened to them, her body tensed, and she got nervous, suddenly she was fight or flight mode, but she had no idea why.

"Okay... I'm not panicking, I'm not, I'm not. Stop looking at me like I'm panicking." The young man said.

"Hey, take it easy, guy," A blonde woman said. "No one's hurt, right? And none of us looks all hatchet murder-y, so we're probably safe. Here. Wherever here is."

"Um... actually," She said and when they turned to look her she growled. "...nothing. Just... nothing." She realized that now probably wasn't right time to tell them that she had a feeling that they were in danger. It probably was just her imagination.

She went to the door, and pressed her ear on to it to listen the sounds she heard from outside, there was a dull and steady roar, like the incessant rumble of a far battle, she frowned. Why did she knew what battle sounded like?

"Hey you?" Blonde woman said.

She turned. "Huh?"

"What's your name?"

"I have no idea." She answered.

"Check your pockets, if there's a drivers license or something."

She dug her pockets and her eyes widened. "Um... I seem to have a... lot of cash, several knives, two wooden stakes, a gun, brass knuckles... and a water bottle and... that's it. No ID." She raised her brow. Why did she carry so many weapons with her?

"So much about none of us being ax murderer." Dark haired young man said.

"Shut up pillock," She said. "Just because I'm... well prepared... doesn't mean I'm an ax murderer," She glanced at her outfit; slightly ragged jeans, leather jacket and worn out work boots. "And I think I'm a.. runaway."

"And you're part of the nancy tribe," Blond young man said and grinned. "Maybe you're the Horny Giles."

"Huh? Horny Giles?" She frowned. "Whatever, why'd you think that I'm a Brit?" She asked.

"Pillock," The middle age and the blonde man said in unison. "That's a British expression... I think," The middle age man continued. "But you seem to have an American accent."

She frowned. "Well... I don't think I'm a Brit... though your accent seems very familiar. In fact, you both seem extremely familiar."

"Yes, well, maybe you've spend time in England... or maybe you are runaway and I adopted you?"

"Bloody hell, tart of a stepmother and runaway stepsister. Great work.. dad." Blonde man said.

Middle age man sighed. "Alright then. Let's head out."

She shook her head. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why do you think soAAAAA" When she saw the yellow eyed men a cold shiver went through her body, she kicked the door shut and crouched down behind the door with others.

"That's why." She said.

"Did you see what I-"

"Vampires!"

"Maybe it's Halloween."

"Doesn't feel like Halloween."

"Even if it is, those were definitely not kids, and they were definitely not wearing costumes. Randy's right. We got vampires!"

As others ran around she stared the stakes in her hand, she felt strangely calm. "Do ya think it's true?" She asked from blonde woman beside her. "That if we'll shove this stake through their heart they'll die?"

The blonde woman nodded. "Probably, why else would you have one of those? And this feels... familiar. Monsters are real... Did we know this?"

"I don't know. We n-need our memories back! We have to get to the hospital!" Another woman said.

She wrapped her hands around her and hugged her. "Cool down. I'll protect you..." She got slightly aroused when she felt her breasts against her body. "And I think I'm a gay."

"So do I," the woman she was hugging said and rested her head on her shoulder. "You think we're a couple?"

She waggled her brows. "We could be, you're a beauty..."

She blushed. "Thanks... I'm Tara, what's your name?"

"I have no—"

"You guys!" Redhead yelled.

"There's a trapdoor in the basement, seems to lead to the sewer." Dark haired man said.

"Let's go."

By the time she reached the back of the shop, one of the creatures crashed through the window. She backed on the corner, keeping Tara behind her. One of the vampires caught Randy and pushed him against the wall, and another one grabbed the small blonde woman. She glanced them, and just when she was about to go and help blonde woman she got out from the vampire's grip and kicked him on his groin and threw it away in disgust..

"Oww, that must hurt." She grinned to Tara.

"Stay away from Randy!" The blonde said and jabbed the stake into the torso of the creature and it exploded to dust.

"What did you just do?" Redhead asked.

"I don't know... but it was cool." The blonde said.

She turned to Tara. "That was cool, huh?"

Tara stared behind her. "Look out!"

She turned and instinctively grabbed vampire by its head, holding it's jaws shut with her hands, and twisted the head hard until she felt something snap, and the fiend went limp in her hands. She dropped it down and grinned to Tara. "Babe, I said I'll protect you," She said and glanced at the limp body. "Wait here."

She lifted the body, the vampire weighted almost nothing in her hands, carried it to the back door, threw it out and when it hit the other vampire they landed in a heap, on top of each other. She slammed the door shut and went back to Tara. For a moment she stared her eyes, her lips had grown a little more tense. She leaned down and kissed Tara, and she kissed her back. "Yep, I'm definitely a gay." She said after the kiss.

"Me too. So... w–what's your name?"

She frowned. "Still no idea. But you can call me whatever you like."

"Diana."

"Huh?"

Tara smiled. "Goddess of hunt, it kinda suits you."

"I think I know why Joan's the boss. I'm like a superhero or something." Joan said.

She snickered. "So am I, super strong and all, ya know?"

Joan stared her. "Whatever, I've got a plan," She said. "They seem to want Randy. And I seem to be pretty strong. Wicked strong. So, while you all go through the sewer and find the hospital, Randy and I'll take the monsters for a run. And you..." She frowned. "Small girl with super powers, go with them, protect them."

She shrugged and wrapped her arm around Tara's waist. "Staying with this beauty... sounds great to me," She said and grinned to Tara. "Let's go. And guys... down there... I'll be first." She walked across the slanting floor and made her way to the sewer entrance. She looked down in to the darkness.

"I'll go and check if coast's clear," She said and jumped down. As soon as she landed to the bottom of the sewer she scanned her surroundings. "Come down, it's safe." She yelled when she was sure that the coast was clear, and only when she looked up she realized that she had jumped over ten yards down without getting hurt. She smirked. "Cool."

She helped others down, and then she led them through the dark sewers. They were slowly walking, everything smelled terrible, and she could hear the rats and other things crawling around her. But she didn't care about these small creatures, they would eat them only if they'd be dead. _'Well',_ she thought, _'that's a happy thought'._

"Are you sure where you're going?" Tara asked.

She smiled. "Yeah, I can smell the fresh air. Where it comes from."

Tara pressed herself against her body. "Super senses too, huh?"

"I think so," She smiled. "I wonder... is my sense of touch super good too? You know... in bed that'll make me easy..."

Tara blushed. "Um... I..."

She kissed her chastely. "Yep, I'm easy. Touching your lips makes me shiver," She said and then her eyes widened. She pointed at the darkness on their right. "There's another tunnel, go there. Someone's coming."

"We won't leave you alone." Redhead said.

"Nah, I'm okay," She said as the vampire appeared in front of them. "Just go." She said and, feeling smug, stepped forward to face the vampire. _He's not well balanced,_ she thought, _not a good fighter.. and how do I know these things?'_ She waited, giving others time to get away.

Then she jumped into the air and landed a good solid kick to the side of the vampire's head. He grunted and staggered back. She took advantage by going on the offensive, pummeling him with brutal punches to his face and neck. The vampire seemed to be surprised, but he was obviously ready for more.

Suddenly she heard Tara screaming, and it distracted her enough for the vampire to hit her, she went down on the wet ground and rolled with the momentum. When she got up, she was six feet away from the vampire. "Fuck this." She said and jumped forward, her fists pumping the vampire's face, then she grabbed his head and broke his neck, and his limp body fell down. She then took a splinter and shoved it into the vampire's heart.

She ran toward the screams, and when she got to them there was a vampire near them. She leaped on him, and they landed in the ground on top of each other. She shoved the stake through it's heart. And got up. "Hi guys, did ya miss me?"

"Help Alex!"

As she glanced at the dark haired man the vampire attacking him turned to dust. She shrugged. "He seems fine."

The sewer was still dark, but she could see Redhead lying on top of Tara, and she felt a pang of jealousy when Tara gently moved a lock of Redhead's hear, they obviously were about to kiss. Darkness. Darkness filled her. Always in dark cold place. Alone. Cold.. so damn cold, painfully cold... She shook her head to clear her thoughts and scanned her surroundings, ready to kill. The people around her, they all smelled humans. She backed on the shadows and wrapped her arms around herself. Most of her memories were too painful, but she remembered who, and what, she was, and what had happened to her.

Xander giggled. "Sorry. Just got back the memory of seeing 'King Ralph'." He said.

She looked at Tara backing away from the red witch, who probably was the one who had taken their memories.

_A dream..._ she thought and again shook her head, _just a dream._


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: **I actually never figured out if the Devonshire was a tea brand, or did it mean tea & scones etc. Or maybe it was just name my host family used... and there's no way in hell I'll google that, just that name brings up pleasant memories, I don't want to ruin them.

**DISCLAIMER: **_Series trademarks, all publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The author is not in any way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise, and makes no money from this work. No copyright infringement is intended._

* * *

**III**

She felt a pang of guilt when she watched Willow walking on the sunny street. There was pain on Willow expressive face. She increased her pace until she was walking beside Willow, but she didn't know what to say. So she just silently walked beside her. She looked at quarreling kids, they were arguing who's turn it was to fetch the ball from the darkness of the bushes. You never saw that kind of deep fear of shadows in other towns.

It took a long time for Willow to realize that someone was walking beside her. When she finally did, she turned to look who it was and froze. "You!" Willow said.

"I'm sorry." Ash said.

Willow gave a hollow laugh. "She left me..." Then she grabbed her face, and Ash froze when Willow fiercely kissed her. "And now we've kissed the same girl," She continued and as she waved her hand a blueish barrier appeared around her. "Stay."

She stood there, watching how Willow crossed the street before reaching the collage. When the barrier around her disappeared, and she turned around to leave, she saw Buffy and Xander. For a moment, she thought about running away, but then she decided that it was pointless. Buffy now knew about her, that blissful night had changed everything, she looked straight into Buffy's eyes.

"Who are you?" Buffy asked.

She ignored her, and as she tried to pass them by Buffy grabbed her arm. "Who are you?" Buffy asked again.

"Ninguém." She answered and stared Buffy's fingers, she used so much force that bones of a human would have been broken, Buffy either didn't know her own strength or she wanted to hurt her.

"That's your name? So WHAT are you? Not a human."

"Yeah, not a human." She answered, wrapped her fingers around Buffy's wrist and twisted it until Buffy wailed and released her grip, then she walked away.

"No, Buffy," She heard Xander saying. "She's not evil."

She turned around the corner, jumped up to fire ladder and climbed to the roof.

"She's gone." She heard Buffy speaking down at the alley.

"Yeah, she's better in that dark, and mysterious thing than dead boy was. She does it in broad daylight too," Xander said. "She said she's a half-breed. But she's one of the good guys, she kills demons and vampires."

There was a long pause before Buffy spoke. "I have to tell Giles, ask him to find out who she is."

After Buffy and Xander had left she laid down on the roof and watched clouds slowly moving through the sky, thinking how the witch's memory spell had changed her situation. Now the Slayer was after her, and there wasn't much she could do about that, except to hope that she'd covered her tracks well enough to hide any clues who she was.

Ash sighed. Giles was Slayer's Watcher. And, if anything, watchers were good finding out information in any of the usual ways, and they weren't afraid to use some of the more unorthodox ways to track out people who were too hard to locate by usual means. And, even though she'd paid a lot to a wizard to prevent any magical ways to locate her, she wasn't sure if it had been enough.

She got up and jumped back down on the alley. She had things to do. And the first thing was to find a moving company willing to move her things right away. And before movers would come, she'd have to pack her weapons so that movers would never see them. Even in the Hellmouth her weapons would raise an eyebrow or two.

* * *

She wondered around the mansion, she actually liked it, it was dark and cold, but it had some character. And in some ways it reminded her about only home she ever had. The alarm-system was crude, but it had to do until she'd decided if she'd stay in the mansion or not.

She went to the roof, she could see the stars in the clear darkness of the sky. They seemed somehow dimmer than they had before. She fished through her pockets until she felt the familiar shape of a vial. It was a small vial, but what it had in it was a complex drug. She stared it. If she'd inject it to her veins and then go fight with the demons they'd kill her, it would be suicide, but she'd still go fighting.

She was tempted.

Suddenly there was a short, low, buzzing sound of the alarm from the front door. She groaned, placed the vial back on her pocket, jumped down on the ground and went to see who had broken in to her new place. Door was open, she slid in, inhaled deeply, and a faint smile flashed on her lips. She saw a light coming under one of the doors. She moved cautiously to the door, grasped the handle and opened it.

Xander's reaction was unconscious and instinctive. He turned, aimed his crossbow to her. Then he relaxed and lowered it. "Ash, the door was open," Xander said. "When you weren't at Ethan's, I figured that it was you who moved in here. This is Tara... but you two already have met, haven't you?"

She nodded, and Tara blushed.

"You choose creepier and creepier places, don't you?" Xander asked, and she looked him with raised brow. He sighed. "First Ethan Rayne's store and now dead boys mansion, you broke in, huh?"

"Angel knows," She answered and stared Tara, who lowered her gaze to the floor. "I bought it."

"And Angel sold it to you?" Xander said, making a mental note to ask Angel to whom he had sold his mansion.

"He did." Ash answered, never taking her eyes off from Tara.

Xander nodded, then he placed his hand on Tara's shoulder. "Staring with raised eyebrow... that's her way of asking why you're here."

Tara glanced gratefully at Xander, and then she looked at Ash, the young girl made her extremely nervous. "Xander told me that y—you train him?" She nodded. "Can y—you train m—m—me too?"

The need crawled slowly inside of Ash, white and bright need to have friends, grasping its fingers around her mind. She hated that feeling. If she'd let Tara into her life she'd endanger Tara's life, and she already had been weak enough to let Xander in. But the need rose inside of her, sat down, eased its legs as it spread its tendrils within her. _'I'm gonna regret this',_ she thought before she nodded.

Tara smiled, but her smile quickly vanished when she snarled to her.

"She does that, and she growls a lot too," Xander said to Tara. "I've figured that her annoyance is not aimed to me... or you. I think it's more that she's angry to herself... because she has feelings."

Ash snorted, Xander was extremely good natured young man, and now it seemed that he was more observant than he appeared.

"I like you, you know?" Xander said. "Yeah, you're all broody and silent and mysterious... much like Angel. But... couple nights ago in Magic Box I saw a self-assured and charming girl flirting with Tara, protecting us—"

She shook her head. "That girl died long ago," She stared Tara. "Can you erase my memory?"

Tara's eyes widened. "I—I might... but I don't want to make that spell. Not, not e—even when you w—want it."

She nodded. "I understand, white witch and black magic... I won't ask again."

"Why'd you want erase your memories?" Xander asked.

"It's been a terrible life," Ash said and frowned. "I'd like to have a fresh start."

Tara looked at Ash, what Xander had told her, the girl was a silent killer. But this woman's aura wasn't killer's aura. She had a lot darkness in her, but it wasn't evil. Never had she seen anyone who at the same time was as scary and disarming as she was. "You—you can't. But you can leave it be—behind... mostly."

Ash nodded. "Trying... but it's hard," She said and smiled to Tara. "I'll never hurt you."

Tara smiled. "I know," She lowered her gaze. "But, but I'm nervous. T—that I...you'll be disappointed of me."

"I will be," Ash said. "But that's expected. It's not a reason to stop trying," She looked at Xander. "You'll be her fitness trainer."

"Aye, Aye, Sir." Xander said and mockingly saluted her.

Ash smiled shaking her head.

* * *

Ash killed the demons almost as fast as they crawled out of their underground tunnel. It had been an easy job, she'd killed two of them before they got out from their cave. But then they got over their shock and attacked her as a team. And suddenly she was facing a small team of intelligent demons. She pulled her gun from the holster, aimed and pulled the trigger. Bullet hit the eye of the demon, and when the back of it's head exploded it fell on the ground.

She dropped her sword, dodged an attack, pulled second gun and started pulling the triggers. Under a minute, all of them were lying on the ground. She put her guns back on the holsters, took her sword and cut their heads off. "You could've helped." She said.

"Why?" Spike said. "I'm still the big bad."

She nodded, whatever Slayer and her friends thought about Spike, he still was a psychopath who saw only one side: his own. She sat down on the demon's back, took her sword and started to clean it.

"You don't talk much, do yo?" Spike asked, looking at the dead demons. "And you're a darn good killer. Slayer would never use a gun."

While she cleaned her sword, she cautiously watched him moving, and when he approached her, she moved the sword on her lap, took a gun and pointed it to him. He stopped, and then he smirked. "Bullets won't kill me." She didn't answer, she just pointed the gun on his head. Spike flinched. "Right... that would hurt. Slayer and Watcher want to meet you."

She nodded. "When?"

"Right now would be good, they've at the Magic Box," Spike said and flicked his cigarette away. "I like that you still see me as a threat. Even with this... chip."

Without answering, she put her sword back to its sheath, got up, took her duster off, leaned down, and lifted the six feet tall demon on her shoulder, and carried it back into the tunnel.

"Damn those things weight over three hundred pounds, you don't look much, but you're strong." Spike said. She ignored him and carried all of the demons back into their tunnel. Then she put her duster back on, and started to walk away.

"So... are you going to Magic Box, or not?" Spike asked.

She nodded. As she walked toward the Magic Box she wondered what they wanted from her, she knew that they didn't trust her. Neither did she trust them, anyone who was powerful enough to resurrect death Slayer by magic was potentially very dangerous. And then there was the Slayer, she'd seen how emotionally unstable she was. But she didn't want to hurt her. "Slayer..." She said. "Will she try to kill me?"

"Might," Spike said. "She's... been strange after she got back."

She shrugged. "Dying does that to you."

She lifted the hood of her sweater over her head and put sunglasses on before they opened the Magic Box door. The moment they entered the Magic box, she was faced with the Slayer. She stood in few yards away, arms crossed and stared her. "What are you? A demon?"

She ignored her and smiled to Xander.

"Buffy," Giles said. "We invited her. Do you want anything? Tea perhaps?"

She nodded. "Devonshire, no jam."

Giles arched his brow. "Good choice, though jam's essential. I haven't yet found decent enough scones from here, but I have some edible ones?"

She nodded to Giles. "That'll be fine."

Xander rolled his eyes. "Dammit, she's one of them." He said and shook his head, and Ash smiled to him.

"You've been training Xander." Buffy said with a bitter tone.

She shrugged, went to sit beside Xander, who smiled reassuringly to her.

"He's mine." Anya said.

Xander sighed and turned to his girlfriend. "Ahn, she's just my training instructor."

"Yes, and she sees you all sweaty and..."

"Ahn, she's gay." Xander interrupted her.

"She's not even a human, so we can't be sure if she's female." Buffy said.

Giles took his glasses off, ran his thumb and forefinger up the bridge of his nose and then, with a small sigh, placed his palm over his eyes. "Buffy, we didn't invite her to be insulted."

"She saved our lives in sewers." Xander said.

"Yes, quite right. We should be grateful for that," Giles said. "Tea and scones will be ready soon." He continued and went into the back room.

"Slayer," Spike said. "It's futile to try to protect them now that the girl's here. She has guns, sword, knives and stakes on her. And she knows how to use 'em. She killed several demons today and then tossed 'em away like they weighted nothing. I'd say she could kill us all before you'd have time to react."

Buffy jumped as though she'd been shot. She faced her, but Ash was now pointing a gun on the Buffy. "Don't," Ash said, her voice unnaturally shrill. "I won't hurt anyone."

Spike laughed. "Slayer, if she'd wanted us dead we'd be dead already."

"Bloody hell!" Giles said, placed a tray on the table and looked first Buffy then Ash's gun. "I was gone only for a few minutes!"

"'S OK," Ash said and put the gun away. "She's protecting them."

"What's with the gun?" Xander asked. "Bullets don't kill vampires."

"Head, eyes, spine, knee, genitals," Ash said, without noticing it, she'd taken the role of Xander's instructor. "Slows vampires down, and guns CAN kill demons. Your gun training starts after you've gotten good enough with the crossbow."

"That's... unconventional, ostentatious and messy." Giles said.

"And effective," Ash shrugged. "I kill demons. I don't care about anything else."

"Yeah you do, you care about me and Tara," Xander said. "You're a nice girl."

"I am a half-breed, much like vampires," Ash said and poured tea to a cup. "I was... created to kill vampires and demons. I'm not a human, or a girl," She looked at Giles. "And I don't kill humans."

"You were pointing a gun on to my head." Buffy said, pointing her with a crossbow.

Ash shrugged. "You're not a human. You're the Slayer. I won't hurt you, but killing you wouldn't be against my oath not to hurt humans."

"Slayer's are humans." Willow said.

"Slayer is Slayer," Ash stated and took a sip from her tea. "This is excellent tea," She sighed. "What do you want from me?"

"Two things," Giles said. "What did you mean by your note? What is not a demon?"

Ash took a pen and wrote something. Then she gave the note to Giles.

Giles read the note and nodded. "I won't ask how you know this. Another thing is... we'd like to know more about you, at the moment you are an enigma and... in Sunnydale enigma is... suspicious. Is it possible for you to take that hood and those sunglasses off so we can see your face?"

"No, I don't want to appear in your CCTV, after the last time I had to change my appearance."

"We don't have CCTV in here." Giles said.

Ash arched her brow, then she looked at Spike. "Listen."

Spike stared her for a minute, then he cocked his head to one side, and shut his eyes. "Bloody hell, be quiet for a moment!" He ordered and shut his eyes again. After awhile he nodded. "She's right, I can hear that strange whirring of zooming camera."

"Good lord," Giles said. "Are you telling us that we've been watched?"

Ash nodded and glanced at the front door. "The scones were fairly edible, and the tea was excellent," She said and got up. "Thank you."

"You are welcome. Now, young lady," Giles started, but paused when there was a knock on the door. "Anya, go tell them that we are closed," He continued, and when he turned back Ash was nowhere to be found. "Where did she go?"

"To the basement, I s'pose she's in the sewers by now," Buffy said. "She's fast."

"I suppose that to be a good demon hunter she has to be fast," Giles said. "Her note.." He continued and gave the note to Willow. "Is that possible?"

Willow read the note, then she looked at Giles. "A freeze-weapon... it might be possible. But how can she know that it's not a demon? And how did she knew that we were researching it?" She said and looked at Xander.

Xander shook his head. "I haven't told her anything about what we do. But I would've if she'd asked. I trust her."

"Trust might be too much to say, but I do consider her as an ally for the time being," Giles said. "Willow what can you do to those cameras?"

* * *

Ash was growing restless. She'd been following the Slayer since sunset, her gaze fixed on her. She heard a quiet growl, and she could feel her senses growing even sharper, her mind groping out across the cemetery. The Slayer's night had been busy, more than usual — six older vampires, one demon and general row of the newly born vampires.

When she saw the vampire dressed as a monk she shut her eyes, trying not to surrender to the hurtful memories that came flooding back. She'd seen vampire monks before, waiting for defenseless women to be victims of their torture. Slowly she opened her eyes and shook those memories away. This wasn't one of the monk-vampires she'd met, this one was too young, too slow and too weak to fight the Slayer. Soon it was dust, and the Slayer continued her patrol.

Suddenly the Slayer stopped, turned and stared straight at her. "You can come out." She said.

She got out from the shadows, and when the Slayer saw her she groaned. "You," She frowned. "How come I don't feel the demon in you?"

Ash shrugged and stopped about ten feet away from her.

Buffy sighed and turned. "If you're following me, it's best if you join me on my patrol," She glanced at Ash. "But I'm watching you."

They walked in silence the familiar paths of the cemetery. At times when Buffy glanced at the black, cloudless sky Ash saw sorrow and desperation spread upon her face, but when Buffy's gaze turned back to Ash it was gone. As they got in to next cemetery Ash noticed how Buffy changed, suddenly every drop of her predatory attitude disappeared, and she was a lost girl. Buffy made herself as a bait.

"Here they come," Buffy whispered when four vampires were approaching them. Ash raised her brow, pretending to be a little lost girl seemed to work well for Buffy.

"Let me handle them." Buffy said, Ash nodded and sat on the headstone.

"Little girl, you're going to be our snack." One of the vampires said, and Buffy rolled her eyes.

"Is there a Vampire cliche book y'all have to study?" Buffy asked.

When the first vampire launched on Buffy, she kicked him on the ribs, and smashed his head back with her open hand as she staked him. Ash watched her fighting all of the three remaining vampires at once. She was fighting hand and foot, and she fought grimly, silently. Buffy made a graceful jump, kicked one on the head and as she dropped down she drove stake to the heart of the vampire beside her.

"You left your right side open." Ash said when they continued their patrol.

Buffy shrugged. "Broken rib."

Ash nodded, that explained it.

"Pistols of yours," Buffy said. "Are they useful?"

"Yeah, but noisy," Ash said and smiled. "Close combat killing is much more fun."

Buffy chuckled. "Yeah, and it's good exercise too," She frowned. "Why are you doing this?"

Ash shrugged. "It's my life."

Buffy stopped and stared her. "You said you were created to kill demons and vampires. Is that true?"

"Yeah,kinda."

Buffy nodded, and they walked in silence from the cemetery to another, at times killing fledglings until they went into the park. Buffy sat on the bench, and Ash sat on the other end of the bench. They sat in silence for a long time. When the sun was up Ash looked at Buffy and the sad expression on her face had given way to a small smile.

"Xander can take care of himself now, I've never... known how to train him. Or any of them," Buffy said. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." Ash said, leaned back on the bench, shut her eyes and let the sun warm her face while she listened to the sounds of the waking town.


End file.
